Inside Out

Monday, March 14, 2011

Not just another street artist looking to make his mark, JR aims to bring light to social and political issues, and challenge public perception on unquestioned standards through posting enormous photographs taken with his 28mm camera. The world is his "gallery" and he chooses locations strategically. To put a face to the anonymity of the often stereotyped and written-off "thugs" from French ghettos, JR posted a series of portraits in bourgeois areas in Paris (pictured above).

For the project Face2Face, he and his team traveled to the Middle East and juxtaposed photographs of Palestinians and Israelis on the walls of 8 Palestinian and Israeli cities. In his most recent project, Women are Heroes, they took pictures of women, many of whom fell victim to war crimes, making loud expressions with silly faces or laughing, strikingly different from the often expressionless portraits. Pasted on roofs, walls, stairs, and even moving trains, the result was enormous, surprising, humorous and more depending on the viewer. He's now inviting everyone to participate in his new project Inside Out.